TN: Thank Nepper for the chapter.

Sylvia is sensitive to gazes.

More than women being sensitive to how others look at them, Sylvia was inevitably sensitive to others’ gazes.

Because she had received many gazes filled with men’s sticky desires, admiration, or affection, she naturally could guess their emotions.

Of course, although she called it guessing, it was close to half certainty.

Anyway, Sylvia could notice the changes happening around Felix faster and more easily than anyone else.

First.

Excluding Ashillya, whom Sylvia first thought of as a rival, Helena’s gaze, who was the other one showing interest in Felix, had changed.

Helena’s gaze no longer showed affection towards Felix.

She didn’t know what had happened between them. Still, after some incident, Helena seemed to have completely given up her feelings for Felix.

It was good news for Sylvia, who had been concerned about Helena, but it wasn’t a situation she could be entirely happy about.

After all, she was falling for the man her friend had liked. And that friend was a very close one.

Anyway, even setting this aside, Helena giving up her feelings for Felix was great news.

Sylvia had secretly thought Helena was in the lead.

As a childhood friend, Helena knew a lot about Felix; as such, she knew about the type of woman Felix liked or his ideal.

That’s why Helena was the person Sylvia was most concerned about from the moment she realized her feelings for Felix.

Anyway, second.

‘… What’s up with her?’

The gaze of the woman Sylvia had been least concerned about had become subtle.

Sylvia looked at Felix, who was walking right in front of her, with a blank expression.

“…Felix, what’s for lunch today?”

“Uh… I’m not sure?”

“Wouldn’t it be better if you looked into lunch at least?”

An ordinary day like usual.

As soon as Felix answered that he didn’t know in response to Helena’s question, Pamela, who was beside them, butted in between them and said grumpily.

“…She can just ask, why are you suddenly reacting so sensitively?”

The relationship between Helena and Pamela is a bit ambiguous.

It was awkward to say they were close, but they spent too much time together to say they weren’t.

Until now, this ambiguous relationship has formed because Pamela has no choice but to accompany Felix due to Marquis Degrosis’s orders.

But this dynamic had never existed before.

Usually, Pamela looked at Sylvia and Helena with disdain, and Felix stuck between them.

So Helena couldn’t help but be a bit flustered.

Helena tried to act as usual to prevent things from becoming awkward with Felix, but suddenly, Pamela intervened and tackled her.

At Helena’s words, Pamela flinched and stepped back.

She looked as if she didn’t know why she had done that herself. Seeing this, Helena tilted her head slightly in question, and then Pamela came to her senses.

“What… What!! You should know the lunch menu on your own! Be, become an independent person…!”

“Is the lunch menu something that leads to independence…?”

Felix muttered in an incredulous tone after hearing Pamela’s hasty excuse.

Hearing this, Pamela wrinkled her face fiercely and aimed a kick at Felix.

Felix, who had been hit by Pamela a few times before, tightly closed his eyes in anticipation of the coming pain, but.

Tap.

The pain he expected didn’t come. Unlike usual, Pamela’s kick just lightly tapped his bottom without much force.

“…?”

Noticing something was weird, Felix tilted his head and looked at Pamela, who was glaring at him with her ears turned bright red.

“Wh-What are you looking at…!”

Felix blinked slowly at Pamela’s unusual behavior, then moved closer to her.

“Wh… What…?”

At first, Pamela was about to shout, but when Felix came closer and looked at her with narrowed eyes, she could only ask in a shrinking voice.

At some point, looking at him up close made her heart pound and her face turn bright red, making her unable to come to her senses.

As Pamela subtly averted her gaze, Felix’s low and serious voice echoed in her ear. At the same time, his hand was placed on her forehead.

“…You seem to have a fever. Are you okay?”

“Ugh…!”

Foul!!

The referee in Pamela’s head called a foul.

Sending the referee, who was shouting that suddenly coming in like this was a foul, far away in her mind, Pamela grumpily brushed off his hand and stepped back a couple of steps.

“You…! I told you that the dense male lead isn’t cliché now!!”

“…Huh?”

As Felix blinked his eyes, not understanding the meaning of Pamela’s words, she felt heat rise for no reason at that sight, kicked the innocent ground, and strode away.

“Let’s go eat! I’m hungry!”

“…Oh, okay.”

Is she sensitive because she’s hungry?

Pamela felt like she would die from the tightness in her chest at the sight of Felix muttering such nonsense.

But it was more important to cool down her heated face right now.

And Sylvia, watching all this from a distance, couldn’t help but bite her lower lip without realizing it.

‘This is a variable…’

Crown Princess Ashillya had been absent from the academy for a long time, and even Helena had distanced herself from Felix.

In fact, Sylvia wasn’t entirely happy about it, but Helena and Felix had also resolved things well, and in between, Sylvia had made plans to get closer to Felix.

Going out to the city together last time was also a part of that plan.

However, when an unexpected obstacle appeared, she couldn’t help but narrow her eyes.

Pamela’s appearance was, to anyone’s eyes, that of a girl in love.

***

Meanwhile, at the Imperial Palace.

Sitting gracefully on a plush sofa, Ashillya calmly looked at those before her.

“We have completed Your Highness the Crown Princess’s orders and have just returned.”

“…Good work.”

The matters concerning the Second Prince, Jeffrey, had long been dealt with. Nevertheless, Ashillya couldn’t leave the Imperial Palace because of the conflict with the Holy Kingdom.

To be precise, she was still staying at the Imperial Palace to eliminate the conflict with the Holy Kingdom.

However, that too would end today.

“What are the detailed results?”

“The Holy Kingdom has acknowledged all incidents, including the kidnapping of Saintess Misa, the next Hero Siegfried’s saint, and the attempted assassination of Your Highness the Crown Princess.”

Ashillya nodded, wiggling her toes.

At her gesture to continue, the noble attendants bowed their heads and continued speaking.

“At the same time, they have stripped Siegfried of his position as the next Hero and transferred all rights to dispose of him.”

“……”

“Furthermore, they have expressed their position, strongly denying any connection between the Holy Kingdom and Siegfried regarding the attempted assassination of Your Highness the Crown Princess.”

“I see. Good work.”

Everything was just a show anyway.

It was just a show to demonstrate to the public why and how the next Hero chosen by the goddess was being punished.

After receiving the report, Ashillya nodded satisfactorily and waved her hand.

“You may go.”

“Yes, Your Highness the Crown Princess.”

In reality, Ashillya was very satisfied with the current situation.

There was no reason not to be satisfied. She could finally leave the Imperial Palace and return to the academy.

It had been such a long wait.

Every day away from him had been hell and torture.

It was the first time something had made her so devoted that she wanted to throw away even the position of Crown Princess that she had longed for.

That’s why she didn’t want to lose it even more. She had no intention of watching others take it away.

But even so, she didn’t want to use her authority to possess him.

It was because she was confident she could do it.

“Alledro.”

“Yes, Your Highness the Crown Princess.”

Ashillya slowly rose from the sofa. The attendant waiting by her side immediately answered her call.

She began to walk calmly, arranging her attire with an elegant and refined demeanor.

“Prepare.”

“Are you thinking of returning right away?”

“Of course, I no longer have the luxury to wait even for a moment.”

Ashillya had already waited a lot.

She had no more luxury to wait any longer. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Felix.

It was that she didn’t trust the other women by his side.

“I will prepare immediately.”

Ashillya blankly looked out the window.

“I shall come, my dear.”

Just thinking of his face brings a smile to her face.

The Iron-blooded Crown Princess had no intention of hiding it.

She had no intention of hiding her feelings for him either.